Youth is still where you left it, and that's where it should stay. Anything that was worth taking on life's journey, you'll already have taken with you.

My childhood was spent embracing one literary heroine after another. I identified passionately with each one and would slavishly imitate them.

Why on earth declutter when you can just shrinkwrap?

My real name is Madeleine Wickham, under which I write dramas with an edge of humour. As Sophie Kinsella its fast, all-out comedies, such as the Shopaholic series.

Sometimes, when I can't get to sleep, I imagine all the rules I'd invent if I ever got to be in charge of the world.

Oh, please. If she's going to use Mr. Darcy to prop up her arguments, I give up.

... what would Poirot do? Poirot wouldn't flap around in a panic. He'd stay calm and use his little grey cells and recall some tiny, vital detail which would be the clue to everything.